Wednesday, 17 October 2012

Summary: Tor Browser is not enough. This short tutorial will help you to significantly improve your security in only 15 minutes.

Your online privacy is under attack. Government agencies (NSA, FBI etc.) and private companies (e.g. Google) are snooping on you. You will find a lot of tips on the web to achieve online anonymity, but most of it is useless.

The information below will give you a rock-solid setup in a reasonable amount of time. If you run into any problems post a comment and I will help you out.

It is possible to avoid being tracked, but to stay anonymous online you need a) a good setup and b) use your common sense.

My setup | User -> VPN -> Tor -> Internet

Using Tor alone is often not enough as a Harvard student had to learn when he emailed a bomb threat to campus officials to avoid having to write a final exam. He was deanonymized by the fact that he was the only person using Tor on the campus network at the time the email was sent.

A VPN will hide the fact that you are using Tor from your Internet service provider or the network you are connected to. Choosing a VPN which can be trusted is extremely important. Companies such as Hide My Ass will reveal your identity as soon as someone knocks on their door. Money spent on these kind of operators is completelywasted money.

Step 2: Virtual Environment and Tor

Open VirtualBox and import the two (!) .ova files (Whonix) into VirtualBox. To do this go to File --> Import Appliance .

First start Whonix-Gateway.

As soon as you see the Desktop of Whonix-Gateway go back to VirtualBox and start Whonix-Workstation.

Everything you do (i.e. surfing the deep web) is done on Whonix-Workstation.

Important: USE your brain.

The best possible setup won't help you if you are careless and login to your normal Facebook/Gmail account while hiding behind VPNs and Tor. Do not use your everyday email address and do not use your everyday username for any anonymous activity online.

Unfortunately people make mistakes, but by using a virtual environment (Whonix) you can greatly mitigate that risk. It will help you separate your two identities and thus stay truly anonymous online.

If you have any questions or problems, please write a comment below.

EXTRA (You don't need this)
Please be aware that the following is of theoretical nature only. Breaking into networks without consent is illegal.

Don't use Windows, but a clean install of Debian instead. Make sure you enable full disk encryption (password should be a minimum of 30 characters).Securely erase your HDD: Boot from an Ubuntu live CD. Install wipe (sudo apt-get install wipe) and wipe the hard disk drive.